The History of Life A Very Short Introduction 1st Edition by Michael Benton ISBN 0199226326 9780199226320

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Product details:
ISBN 10: 0199226326
ISBN 13: 9780199226320
Author: Michael Benton

Here is the extraordinary story of the unfolding of life on Earth, told by Michael J. Benton, a world-renowned authority on biodiversity. Ranging over four billion years, Benton weaves together the latest findings on fossils, earth history, evolutionary biology, and many other fields to highlight the great leaps that enabled life to evolve from microbe to human–big breakthroughs that made whole new ways of life possible–including cell division and multicellularity, hard skeletons, the move to land, the origin of forests, the move to the air. He describes the mass extinctions, especially the Permian, which obliterated 90% of life, and he sheds light on the origins of human beings, and of the many hominids that went before us. He ends by pointing out that studying the past helps us to predict the future: what happens if the atmosphere warms by 5 degrees? What happens if we destroy much of the biodiversity on Earth? These things have happened before, Benton notes. We need only look to the distant past to know the future of life on Earth.

About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life’s most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

The History of Life A Very Short Introduction 1st Edition Table of contents:

1. Introduction: The Story of Life

• Understanding the History of Life
• The Earth as a Timeline
• The Importance of Fossils and Geological Evidence

2. The Origin of Life

• The First Steps: Origins in the Primordial Soup
• The Development of Early Cells
• The Role of Chemistry in the Emergence of Life

3. The Early Earth

• Conditions on Earth 4.5 Billion Years Ago
• Geological Evidence of Early Life
• The Formation of Continents and Oceans

4. The First Life Forms

• The Emergence of Prokaryotes: Bacteria and Archaea
• Early Photosynthesis and the Oxygen Revolution
• Microbial Life and Its Role in Earth’s Atmosphere

5. The Rise of Eukaryotes

• The Evolution of Complex Cells
• Endosymbiosis and the Origin of Mitochondria and Chloroplasts
• Multicellularity: From Single-Celled Organisms to Complex Life Forms

6. The Cambrian Explosion

• The Rapid Diversification of Life
• Early Marine Life: Trilobites, Arthropods, and Early Vertebrates
• The Evolutionary Significance of the Cambrian Explosion

7. The Age of Fishes

• The Rise of Vertebrates: Fish and Early Tetrapods
• The Transition from Water to Land
• The Evolution of Jaws, Limbs, and Early Amphibians

8. The Age of Dinosaurs

• The Mesozoic Era: The Age of Reptiles
• The Rise of Dinosaurs: Saurischians and Ornithischians
• Evolution of Birds from Theropod Dinosaurs
• Dinosaur Extinction: Causes and Impact on Evolution

9. The Evolution of Mammals

• The Rise of Mammals After the Dinosaur Extinction
• The Evolution of Placental Mammals and Marsupials
• The Impact of Climate Change on Mammalian Evolution

10. The Rise of the Birds

• The Evolution of Flight
• The Adaptive Radiation of Birds
• The Role of Birds in Ecosystems

11. The Evolution of Humans

• The Primate Evolutionary Tree
• The Evolution of Homo Sapiens
• The Development of Culture, Tools, and Society

12. The Sixth Mass Extinction

• The Ongoing Extinction Crisis
• The Causes and Consequences of Human Impact on Biodiversity
• Conservation Efforts and the Future of Life on Earth

13. Conclusion: The Continuing Story of Life

• Life’s Unpredictability and Resilience
• The Future of Life on Earth
• How the History of Life Can Inform Our Understanding of the World

Index

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